Scientists recognized long ago the possibility of converting heat energy stored in oceans and other large bodies of water into a more useful form of energy such as electricity. The well-known Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) process utilizes the characteristic difference in temperature (20° C.) between solar-warmed surface water and deep cold water to power a closed-cycle or open-cycle heat engine. A variant of this approach is to confine a volume of surface water (that is, a floating solar pond) and generate electricity using the temperature differential between the relatively cool, low salinity, water at the surface of the pond and the hot, high salinity, water near the bottom of the pond. See, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,949, which discloses a floating solar pond for use on an inland body of salt water such as the Dead Sea or the Great Salt Lake.
The captured solar energy can alternatively or additionally be used to produce desalinated water, as described for example, in the U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0024422 to Henderson, published Feb. 4, 2010. In that system, the solar energy is used to heat a body of confined seawater, and cold seawater is circulated through an array of pipes suspended over the confined water. Water vapor in the air above the confined water condenses on the chilled pipes, and is collected for transfer to an off-shore or on-shore storage facility.
In certain regions of the world that border large bodies of saltwater, an ample supply of fresh water is desperately needed for human consumption and agriculture. While commercial desalinization systems can satisfy a minor part of this need, they require a substantial and reliable source of electrical energy to operate and a skilled workforce to maintain them. A floating solar energy conversion system such as described in the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0024422 can address both electrical energy and fresh water production, but the populace in the subject regions need an efficient way of producing large quantities of fresh water more than they need electricity. Accordingly, what is needed is a floating solar energy conversion system configured to optimize off-shore production of distilled water for on-shore usage.